Design Goals
The operating temperature should not exceed the melting temperature of the fuel. Fuel-to-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) has to be designed against. FCCI is eutectic melting between the fuel and the cladding; uranium, plutonium, and lanthanum (a fission product) inter-diffuse with the iron of the cladding. The alloy that forms has a low eutectic melting temperature. FCCI causes the cladding to reduce in strength and could eventually rupture. The amount of transuranic transmutation is limited by the production of plutonium from uranium. A design work-around has been proposed to have an inert matrix. Magnesium oxide has been proposed as the inert matrix. Magnesium oxide has an entire order of magnitude smaller probability of interacting with neutrons (thermal and fast) than elements like iron.
| Actinides | Half-life | Fission products | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cm | Puƒ | Cf | Ac№ | 10–22 y | m is meta |
Kr | Cd₡ | |||
| Uƒ | Pu | Cmƒ | 29–90 y | Cs | Sr | Sm₡ | Sn | |||
| ƒ for fissile |
Cfƒ | Amƒ | Cfƒ | 140 y – 1.6 ky |
No fission products |
|||||
| Am | Ra№ | Bk | ||||||||
| Pu | Th | Cm | Am | 5–7 ky | ||||||
| 4n | Cmƒ | Cm | Puƒ | 8–24 ky | ||||||
| Npƒ | Uƒ | Th№ | Pa№ | 32–160 ky | ||||||
| Cm | 4n+1 | U№ | 211–348 ky | Tc | ₡ can capture | Sn | Se | |||
| U | Np | Pu | Cmƒ | 0.37–23 My | Cs₡ | Zr | Pd | I | ||
| Pu | № for NORM |
4n+2 | 4n+3 | 80 My | 6-7% | 4-5% | 1.25% | 0.1-1% | <0.05% | |
| Th№ | U№ | Uƒ№ | 0.7–14 Gy | fission product yield | ||||||
The SFR is designed for management of high-level wastes and, in particular, management of plutonium and other actinides. Important safety features of the system include a long thermal response time, a large margin to coolant boiling, a primary system that operates near atmospheric pressure, and intermediate sodium system between the radioactive sodium in the primary system and the water and steam in the power plant. With innovations to reduce capital cost, such as making a modular design, removing a primary loop, integrating the pump and intermediate heat exchanger, or simply find better materials for construction, the SFR can be a viable technology for electricity generation.
The SFR's fast spectrum also makes it possible to use available fissile and fertile materials (including depleted uranium) considerably more efficiently than thermal spectrum reactors with once-through fuel cycles.
Read more about this topic: Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor
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